Blog Your Current Game

[PoS]

Battletech: currently playing in Career Mode. My present lance is 2 Centurions outfitted with LRMs, a Firestarter with an LRM and a Commando- all have maxed out armor. What I do nowadays is to sneak the Commando around until it gets within sensor range of an enemy mech while the others hang back. Once sensor locked we just hit the enemy with LRM barrages until they blow up.

Urban biomes are a little bit interesting in that they have plenty of tight squeezes and lanes, so jump capable mechs have a manuever advantage. I tend to play it conservatively and try to goad the enemy to move into my kill zones. So far so good.

I've also downloaded Mutant Year Zero so will be starting on that soon.

Surviving Mars was meh. Played for a couple of hours and then uninstalled the game.

 

[Deuce]

Battletech: currently playing in Career Mode. My present lance is 2 Centurions outfitted with LRMs, a Firestarter with an LRM and a Commando- all have maxed out armor. What I do nowadays is to sneak the Commando around until it gets within sensor range of an enemy mech while the others hang back. Once sensor locked we just hit the enemy with LRM barrages until they blow up.

Urban biomes are a little bit interesting in that they have plenty of tight squeezes and lanes, so jump capable mechs have a manuever advantage. I tend to play it conservatively and try to goad the enemy to move into my kill zones. So far so good.

I've also downloaded Mutant Year Zero so will be starting on that soon.

Surviving Mars was meh. Played for a couple of hours and then uninstalled the game.

I was just given a contract mission briefing... by a parrot.

A ****in parrot wearing sunglasses on the holovid.

 

[PoS]

I was just given a contract mission briefing... by a parrot.

A ****in parrot wearing sunglasses on the holovid.

Are you talking about Mutant Year Zero?

 

[Deuce]

Are you talking about Mutant Year Zero?

No. Battletech!

"Trustworthy Client." NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL.

Headshot a Highlander 733p! Now to figure out what to do with it. This thing is a friggin tank but really needs some more hardpoints.

 

[PoS]

No. Battletech!

"Trustworthy Client." NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL.

Headshot a Highlander 733p! Now to figure out what to do with it. This thing is a friggin tank but really needs some more hardpoints.

Wow, never encountered that one yet.

Highlanders are badass- the gauss rifle is the single most OP weapon in the game- low heat, no recoil pernalties, and can one hit kill with a headshot. But they are rare as ****.

 

[Deuce]

Wow, never encountered that one yet.

Highlanders are badass- the gauss rifle is the single most OP weapon in the game- low heat, no recoil pernalties, and can one hit kill with a headshot. But they are rare as ****.

Sadly this one does not come with gauss rifles. That's the SLDF variant from the campaign, hard to find in career mode and I have mechs start empty so even salvaging me one wont get the gauss rifles. (although I doubt I'll encounter them in the field anyway)

The Gauss is nice in that it can do long range head sniping in one hit, but it suffers from the same problems that all the Lostech weapons do. The game's visual range is only 300 meters. This is only one hex outside the range of SRMs, medium lasers, and AC/20s. This means most fights will happen in SRM range. I don't think I've ever been outside range of a Large Laser while having a line of sight on someone, as this would mean my mechs are pretty spread out. So why on earth would I want the extra heat from an ER Large Laser? PPCs are even worse, if I'm outside the range of a PPC that means my spotter is nearly outside sight range of his fire support, and PPCs are already way too hot to be useable anyway, an ER PPC just eliminates my heat budget entirely.

Large Pulse Lasers are a straight downgrade from a PPC, they produce more heat and do less damage at less range. The one benefit is the +2 accuracy bonus, which can be found on a PPC+ anyway or even exceeded on one of the PPC++ models. And the PPCs have stability damage and a sensor debuff on top of it! And comparing LPL to the regular Large Laser, more than double the heat for a 12.5% damage increase. Laughable.

Medium Pulse maaaybe have an argument over the Medium Laser, when hardpoints are in short supply, but in the end the +damage variants overcome all the advantages once again.

AC/10+ makes a good replacement for the Gauss rifle. The +5 or +10 damage variant can also oneshot a head, it weighs 3 tons less, and isn't super rare. If you put those three tons into heatsinks, the net result is actually less heat on the AC/10 than on the Gauss rifle! (also a critical hit to a gauss ammo bin is extremely problematic because you can't just scrounge up more)

In my opinion, the only useful Lostech is the double heat sink, or the mech chassis themselves. I just stole an SLDF Griffon that actually becomes a good battlemech because it simulates an XL engine/endo steel or whatever, they get extra free tonnage. Great for the flashpoints with drop limits. AS7-D-HT Atlas is hands down the best battlemech in the game. Seventy-eight free tons, 13 more than King Crab or the standard issue Atlas.

 

[Mr Person]

When you've managed to deftly steal a great amount in short order in ESO, but take one last chance and boom.... there goes all the loot.

 

[OlaFanga]

My PC burned. I can't run my favorite games now. I feel like crying. recommend me some old strategies, preferably step by step, in them fps is not important. In the meantime, I play browser games to somehow cheer myself up.

 

[Deuce]

With a major mechanics overhaul and a couple new DLCs since I last played, I'm back on Stellaris.

They fixed my favorite bug with caravaneers, where they'd sometimes park themselves over one of your planets and never leave. They'd bug you all the time with offers, or just steal **** from you. The only remedy was to blast them out of the sky. (which takes a pretty solid fleet, you wont be able to early game) So, the species Offamylawn formed the Sovereignty of Front Yard. Xenophobic Pacifist Spiritualists, with Agrarian Idyll and Inner Perfection civics. The Landscaper teaches that our lawn is sacred, that all must respectfully stay off our lawn. We just gradually expand what is considered to be that lawn...

A dimensional rift of some sort near a black hole that I started observing is spewing out free minerals and energy credits. Surely nothing bad will come of this.

 

[Deuce]

Stayed up until 2am last night. ****in Stellaris.

Entire northeastern corner of the map was empty so I just kept on expanding. This became a serious tactical problem when a pair of allied nations decided to attack me and it turns out they haveaccess to three wormhole shortcuts to areas of my empire. Two things saved me from taking major territory losses: the AI is terrible at this game, and a third empire decided to knife them in the back while they were attacking me. They had to pull their largest fleet back, which was going to rampage around unchecked for quite a while because my fleet was split up.

Captured one of the wormhole systems in the process. Erected a death star battlestation. Do not attempt this again, assholes.

 

[PoS]

Sadly this one does not come with gauss rifles. That's the SLDF variant from the campaign, hard to find in career mode and I have mechs start empty so even salvaging me one wont get the gauss rifles. (although I doubt I'll encounter them in the field anyway)

The Gauss is nice in that it can do long range head sniping in one hit, but it suffers from the same problems that all the Lostech weapons do. The game's visual range is only 300 meters. This is only one hex outside the range of SRMs, medium lasers, and AC/20s. This means most fights will happen in SRM range. I don't think I've ever been outside range of a Large Laser while having a line of sight on someone, as this would mean my mechs are pretty spread out. So why on earth would I want the extra heat from an ER Large Laser? PPCs are even worse, if I'm outside the range of a PPC that means my spotter is nearly outside sight range of his fire support, and PPCs are already way too hot to be useable anyway, an ER PPC just eliminates my heat budget entirely.

Large Pulse Lasers are a straight downgrade from a PPC, they produce more heat and do less damage at less range. The one benefit is the +2 accuracy bonus, which can be found on a PPC+ anyway or even exceeded on one of the PPC++ models. And the PPCs have stability damage and a sensor debuff on top of it! And comparing LPL to the regular Large Laser, more than double the heat for a 12.5% damage increase. Laughable.

Medium Pulse maaaybe have an argument over the Medium Laser, when hardpoints are in short supply, but in the end the +damage variants overcome all the advantages once again.

AC/10+ makes a good replacement for the Gauss rifle. The +5 or +10 damage variant can also oneshot a head, it weighs 3 tons less, and isn't super rare. If you put those three tons into heatsinks, the net result is actually less heat on the AC/10 than on the Gauss rifle! (also a critical hit to a gauss ammo bin is extremely problematic because you can't just scrounge up more)

In my opinion, the only useful Lostech is the double heat sink, or the mech chassis themselves. I just stole an SLDF Griffon that actually becomes a good battlemech because it simulates an XL engine/endo steel or whatever, they get extra free tonnage. Great for the flashpoints with drop limits. AS7-D-HT Atlas is hands down the best battlemech in the game. Seventy-eight free tons, 13 more than King Crab or the standard issue Atlas.

I agree with double heat sinks being priceless. I also use a mod that disables the weapon type limits on the mech chassis, so when I cobbled together a standard Highlander, I equipped it with a PPC++ since I coulndt find a gauss rifle and just added more heat sinks to compensate. Nowhere near as good as a Royal Highlander, but still better than most other assault mechs.

I might try a King Crab and equip it with AC/10++ instead of the AC/20s. But I'm still only one day 100 so it will be awhile before I can capture an assault mech...

 

[Deuce]

I agree with double heat sinks being priceless. I also use a mod that disables the weapon type limits on the mech chassis, so when I cobbled together a standard Highlander, I equipped it with a PPC++ since I coulndt find a gauss rifle and just added more heat sinks to compensate. Nowhere near as good as a Royal Highlander, but still better than most other assault mechs.

I might try a King Crab and equip it with AC/10++ instead of the AC/20s. But I'm still only one day 100 so it will be awhile before I can capture an assault mech...

Disabling hardpoints just eliminates all the variation between chassis. If you wanted to play with Omnimechs I suggest a different game, Clanner scum!

 

[PoS]

Disabling hardpoints just eliminates all the variation between chassis. If you wanted to play with Omnimechs I suggest a different game, Clanner scum!

Hey according to the tabletop rules, there are no fixed weapon type hardpoints. Being forced to use the same weapon types makes your tech team look incompetent imo- being able to fully customize your unit's mech fits the canon.

 

[Mr Person]

My father urged me to try the Dark Brotherhood stuff in Elder Scrolls Online. Now, each of my characters is a stone cold killer, so perhaps I have cured myself of my inability to play anything other than neutral-good characters.

That said, there are a number of animations for killing someone with the Blade of Woe. One of which is to tap the target on the shoulder, and when they turn around to twice stab them right in the dick, pause, then once in the chest for good measure. Seems a little extreme, but hey.

 

[jmotivator]

I picked up Warhammer 40K: Gladius the other day on Steam sale and have been playing it for the last few days.

It is a pretty interesting Civ clone set in the Warhammer 40K universe. I don't have time for a full write-up but here is the basic quick thoughts:

Pros:

- Production quality of the in game is really very good for the game genre. Graphics are good and gunfire sounds are meaty and weapon specific.
- Unit variation is really good, with units from basic infantry up to titan class
- Maps give some pretty interesting trade-off decisions, with tiles supporting research, production or fame, the latter being the currency of hero production
- Hero classes are both powerful and fairly powered. There is an item system that helps develop heroes into very powerful units, but they can get overwhelmed if you aren't careful.
- All the major races are available and playable (I think?).. but I play Space Marines because I am boring.
- The combat gets pretty intense. Unlike the more recent Civ offerings, there are large scale fights pretty much constantly, and land and resources are clawed from the hold of independent and opposing forces and held through prudent defense.

Cons:

- The game almost plays like a demo. There is no campaign, just quick battles.
- The menu is sparse, with the tutorial option just launching a game on a small map and easy setting, the tutorial is just the pop-up tips that you would get from playing a normal game.
- The lack of story missions means you never really connect with even the hero units... there is no carry-over.


BUT, I don't think the negatives really detract from the fun when you are actually in the game and fighting off a Necron Assault with over-extended troops.

If you want to play Civ Warhammer 40k and play Orcs or Tyranid, etc. this game is good where it counts most, though non-existent pretty much everywhere else.


Edit: Caveat... I haven't played any of the other races, so I don't know if they play appreciably different from the Space Marines... I would think they should if people who prefer those other races are going to play them and feel at home in the strategy of those races. You wouldn't want the Space Marine and Tyranid tech trees to be carbon copies, for example.

 

[jmotivator]

Also, my "all the major races" was, well, wrong... here are the list of playable races:

 

[jmotivator]

And a follow-up...

I generally don't pay attention to the cost of games when I buy them, and it was on sale, but I wouldn't suggest this game at full price. For the reasons I stated about, there is no justification for pricing a game that skips entire QOL assets like a coherent campaign, voice acting, etc. etc. charging what they charge for this game.

The full price of the base game is already more than you should pay, but the base game doesn't even come with Chaos or Tyranid... if you want them it costs $15 each.

It's still a fun game, and I will log a few hours on it today, but I can't suggest spending $70 on a game that still feels unfinished.

 

[Redress]

I picked up Warhammer 40K: Gladius the other day on Steam sale and have been playing it for the last few days.

It is a pretty interesting Civ clone set in the Warhammer 40K universe. I don't have time for a full write-up but here is the basic quick thoughts:

Civ 1 - 4, or Civ 5 and 6?

 

[Mr Person]

Heh, so I accidentally murder someone in front of someone else (the latter part of that sentence is the problem). The one I didn't kill first says "What were you thinking?" and then, in a bored tone, "someone get the guard..."; or it was more of a "really? Not this **** again..." tone.

I like the little touches

 

[jmotivator]

Civ 1 - 4, or Civ 5 and 6?

It's a hard question actually, it is like playing Civilization: Starcraft: The Board Game.

It is simpler than any Civ and totally geared towards conquest and eradication. For instance, Space Marines can only build 1 city, and their tech tree is geared towards units that can take and hold ground. You don't capture enemy cities, you only destroy them, and for obvious reasons there is no civil or diplomatic tech or consideration. It's just resource management to promote army creation.

 

[Redress]

Age of Wonders: Planetfall came out today. There is some good, some bad(holy **** alot of bugs), and some spectacular(rising into battle on the back of a dinosaur with lasers mounted to the top of it's head...is that not the most awesome sentence in the English language ever). Bugs are really frustrating tho. To get the game to run, I had to google search to find a solution: change the language selected on the patcher a couple times and then set it back to English. Then and only then did the game load. Developer posting in the thread was of course saying it would not work, and it was something else...

 

[Redress]

 

[PoS]

Age of Wonders: Planetfall came out today. There is some good, some bad(holy **** alot of bugs), and some spectacular(rising into battle on the back of a dinosaur with lasers mounted to the top of it's head...is that not the most awesome sentence in the English language ever). Bugs are really frustrating tho. To get the game to run, I had to google search to find a solution: change the language selected on the patcher a couple times and then set it back to English. Then and only then did the game load. Developer posting in the thread was of course saying it would not work, and it was something else...

This is why I never buy a game either on pre-release or release day. Game developers no longer use paid beta testers to sort the bugs out, rather they use paying customers to do it. They treat customers like ****, thinking they will buy no matter how buggy the game is- sadly theyre right. The only other businesspeople who treat their customers like this are drug dealers.

 

[jmotivator]

Age of Wonders: Planetfall came out today. There is some good, some bad(holy **** alot of bugs), and some spectacular(rising into battle on the back of a dinosaur with lasers mounted to the top of it's head...is that not the most awesome sentence in the English language ever). Bugs are really frustrating tho. To get the game to run, I had to google search to find a solution: change the language selected on the patcher a couple times and then set it back to English. Then and only then did the game load. Developer posting in the thread was of course saying it would not work, and it was something else...

Agreed. The factions are rather distinct, too, which I quite like. I was torn between the Vanguard and the .. uh.. Space Dwarves? Playing Vanguard to start... because I am boring.

Even within the factions the variation would be sufficient to build a game around. I think I chose poorly for my play style to start since I chose a cybernetic focus when I usually focus on diplomacy... the cybernetic focus trades time between being amazingly useful and completely worthless depending on the enemy, while diplomacy is uniformly useful.

The cons are mostly bug related, the biggest pro for me is the converging of hexagonal maps and demarcated regions (like Risk, Axis&Allies, etc.)... it gives a much better feel at the strategic level.

The one thing I miss is the item system of the other AoW games. The trade-off is cool, though, with mounts becoming functional battlefield equipment (APCs, tanks and Dinosaurs with fricking lasers). I haven't played long enough to see if there are unique vehicles that carry unique characteristics yet, but I'm guessing they are there.

 

[jmotivator]

So for anyone who has played Age of Wopnders: Planetfall, you will quickly realize I hadn't played very much of the game when I commented above. :lol:

Here are some things hat I have learned since that comment that might help fellow noobs:

1) Spending Customization points on a vehicle or weapon is probably not a great investment. If you want specialized weapons and a vehicle you can get them fairly quickly by conquest.

2) I don't think the starting vehicles are really worth taking ever. They are considerably lower HP than the hero in them, and not really that big of an upgrade. Certainly not worth throwing half your customization points at...

3) So far I get the most mileage out of taking bonus starting tech and more starting units, technically more units is a better investment since it automatically is in line with your faction strength, but bonus tech can be a HUGE bonus if the tech is right.

4) The NPC races are whiny bastards that are probably not worth the effort...

5) Every hero has 5 slots for gear: Main weapon, Secondary weapon, and 3 mods (that can add everything from incendiary rounds to jetpacks and armor)... all units get the final three slots to allow you to customize unit builds, and those customized units get added to your city build options.

6) I have yet to see a vehicle that doesn't hamper a heroes ability in combat, though flying vehicles help in strategic game.... so long as that hero is commanding all flying units.